Lateral thinking

A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator — or if it was raining that day — he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment.

#2

In the middle of the ocean is a yacht. Several corpses are floating in the water nearby.

#3

A man is lying dead in a room. There is a large pile of gold and jewels on the floor, a chandelier attached to the ceiling, and a large open window.

#4

A man and his wife raced through the streets. They stopped, and the husband got out of the car. When he came back, his wife was dead, and there was a stranger in the car.

#5

A body is discovered in a park in Chicago in the middle of summer. It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of death was hypothermia.

#6

A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. The judge declares, “This is the strangest case I’ve ever seen. Though it’s a cut-and-dried case, this woman cannot be punished.”

#7

A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at him. The man says, “Thank you,” and walks out.

#8

A hunter aimed his gun carefully and fired. Seconds later, he realized his mistake. Minutes later, he was dead.

#9

A man is returning from Switzerland by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died.

#10

A man goes into a restaurant, orders albatross, eats one bite, and kills himself.

A man is found hanging in an otherwise empty locked room with a puddle of water under his feet.

#12

A man is dead in a puddle of blood and water on the floor of an otherwise empty locked room.

#13

A man is lying dead, face down in the desert. He’s wearing a backpack.

#14

A man is lying dead, face down in the desert. There’s a match near his outstretched hand.

#15

A man is driving his car. He turns on the radio, listens for five minutes, turns around, goes home, and shoots his wife.

#16

A man is driving his car. He turns on the radio, then pulls over to the side of the road and shoots himself.

#17

The music stops, and a woman dies.

#18

A man is dead in a room with a small pile of wood chips and sawdust in the corner.

#19

There’s a flash of light, and a man dies.

#20

A rope breaks. A bell rings. A man dies.

A man is lying drowned in a dead forest.

#22

A woman buys a new pair of shoes, goes to work, and dies.

#23

A man meets a one armed man on a subway, who pulls a gun and shoots him.

#24

A man is lying awake in bed. He makes a phone call, says nothing, and goes to sleep.

#25

A man kills his wife, then goes inside his house and kills himself.

#26

Two men enter a bar. They are served identical drinks. One lives; the other dies.

#27

Joe, wearing a mask and carrying an empty sack, leaves his house. An hour later he returns with a full sack. He goes into a room and turns out the lights.

#28

Hans and Fritz are German spies during World War II. They try to enter America, posing as returning tourists. Hans is immediately arrested.